June 20, 2005

Unreal America

Hey! I don't see what's so "dumb" about believing in paranormal stuff—haunted houses or mental telepathy or clairvoyance or UFOs. I certainly do! Although I'm not at all sold on astrology, and not because I think these horoscope predictions are so vague as to be trivially true—most of the time I find them exactly wrong! The Chinese calendar seems more accurate, usually...

But seriously, why not believe? It's fun! Makes life more exciting, a bit of coal-burning for the imagination, that sort of thing. And no, I don't believe in paranormal phenomenon enough to, say, stop paying attention to scientific explanations for various events—that would, of course, be harmful—and beliefs in haunted houses don't really lead me into any sort of substantive policy positions, as certain religions might, or as a dour view of witches might. But I imagine that holds for most others. So really, paranormal beliefs might be some of the healthiest sorts of beliefs to have, no? (And yes, this wasn't really Digby's main point, but still...)